Kevin Randolph: And we'll begin. So if I could get you to -- whatever we say,
mention your name and the year you graduated and we'll be on our way.Pete Henderson: OK, my name is Pete Henderson and I graduated in 1947.
Randolph: 1947. What was it like to be -- did you graduate at the age of
eighteen, I guess, or something close to that?Henderson: Earlier, sixteen I think.
Randolph: OK, sixteen. What was it like to be sixteen years of age in 1947. I
mean that was -- historically that was an important era in this country's history. So what was it like for you to live in that time?Henderson: Live at North Shore or live --
Randolph: Just in general as a starting point, as a context.
Henderson: We had just lived through World War II of course. I remember December
7th, 1941 working in a toy shop on a Sunday morning in North Shore when that news --Randolph: Can you say -- not a lot of people -- it hasn't come up a lot in
conversation. Maybe you're the person to talk about that and what that was and why it existed. Would you be willing to tell a little bit about that since you mentioned it?Henderson: Sure. As I remember it, it was part of a social conscience community
involvement phase of North Shore. And we either designed and assembled or fixed up toys, which then got delivered to inner city communities that didn't have toys. And I'm a little fuzzy as to which of those it was. It seems to me we'd dream up some sort of a toy and produce crude product. But it could have been a little different from that.Randolph: What ages worked in the toy shop, do you remember?
Henderson: I was sixth or seventh grade in 1941 when I remember that news
broadcast of Pearl Harbor. So it certainly was middle school. But I suspect it was twelve or thirteen grades each contributing what they could.Randolph: And it sounds like it meant after school hours? Was that the case?
Henderson: Yes. That was a Sunday so I know we worked other than school hours,
whether that was a part of the curriculum as well, I'm not sure.Randolph: It sounds like it was a seasonal enterprise.
Henderson: Exactly. Right, Christmas.
Randolph: Right. As I understand it and have read about it, it was one of many
different outreach programs designed to, as you said, to foster social responsibility, to encourage people to give back in the spirit of the school motto. Can you talk about maybe some of the other things like that that you participated in during your time here?Henderson: There were activities like the present interim week, is that the
right name?Randolph: That is absolutely right.
Henderson: And I don't think it was called that, but there were times that we
shut down the classroom experience and at least considered or focused attention to the fact that Winnetka was different in North Lawndale. And I don't remember going to North Lawndale, but I remember a heightened, freshened new awareness of those differences and those needs and those disparities of living circumstances. But the interim week notion was very much present then and we took time out to rake leaves or plant flowers, do things on the campus.Randolph: What do you guess was the point of that? Purpose of that? That was
clearly an intentional planned part of the school curriculum. And as I understand, it was very much a part of the philosophy of Perry Dunlap's name.Henderson: Yes.
Randolph: What do you think was the goal? What was the expectation? What were --
what was he hoping would happen from those kinds of experiences?Henderson: By the way, he was here in those years. So I had a direct, although
not extensive exposure to Perry Dunlap Smith. But the live and serve notion, we're not walled off from the rest of the world and one needn't be embarrassed 00:05:00about living in Winnetka with its wonderful benefits but one needed to be aware that there were other ways to live. And that our absence of neediness was not universally true. So it's hard for me to sort out to what extent did North Shore influence me and what extent did family influence me, but clearly North Shore was a piece of it, the toy shop interim week kinds of things were a piece of North Shore. It was broader. And that, it was part of the curriculum and that whole bleeding heart involvement in the community is a central theme that's run through the sixty-five years since leaving North Shore.Randolph: You anticipated my next question I was going to ask you, what form did
that take in your own life in terms of feeling the need to serve, feeling the need -- the awareness of others? It sounds like it did affect you as you said, school was a part of it but other things as well. But it sounds like it did at a formative point in your life, that message came through to you in a range of different forms.Henderson: It came through in a way that was absolutely central. Not just an
occasional peripheral piece. After college, I did a three and a half year Navy stint. And this is all going to lead to your question, hang in there. And I spent three of those years on a Destroyer in the Atlantic during the time when the war was in the Pacific in Korea. So it was pretty quiet where I was and I stood eight hours of watches every day. And after about five of those I thought, boy I've got a lot of staring at the ocean with nothing going on to do and I'm going to go nuts if I don't put that time to good use. So beyond looking for an occasional Russian submarine, which we never saw, I inventoried what had happened in the twenty-one years prior to that and what I could discern out of that experience that would dictate sort of a framework or a theme or a set of want-to's in my life. And came up with a spec sheet or an inventory or likes, wants, interests, have-to's and the opposite of that, spare me this. And all the clues were there, interestingly, at age twenty-one with pretty innocent North Shore Country Day, Dartmouth, babysitting, Boy Scouts, lawn mowing kinds of things. But one central theme was the give back, pay rent kind of experience. Not just lady bountiful stuff but curiosity, interest, awareness of not only the need but the richness of what was in that experience.I also realized in that time that there were more interesting, exciting
contributive things to do than there was time to do them in, and that a pattern that I would like to follow would be to four, five, ten-year episodes. And force change so that I could indulge various interests and either then or early implementing that it became apparent that if you go back to go each time, at the end of every ten-year period, you don't get all there is to get quite out of that experience and there needed to be a theme so each was a continuation or an enrichment of the other. And that theme was social betterment. And that very definitely had its roots at North Shore. And it seemed to me one could indulge this theme from several platforms. You could work for a not-for-profit or you could work for the government or you could -- for a university or school or foundation. And I did implement that. I did a stint in academic administration, a stint in corporate world, a stint with a not-for-profit. And so I would say if there was a single centerpiece to all the pieces of my career and life built 00:10:00around, it was that social awareness or community concern or give back focus.Randolph: Is it amazing as you look back on it to have that kind of clarity that
you had at such a young age to take stock and have the opportunity to take stock then to have so much of your life yet to live to have an action plan, that's a happy set of circumstances it seems.Henderson: I think that's a North Shore legacy too, planfulness, intentionality --
Randolph: Mindfulness, right.
Henderson: Yes, exactly. But planfulness with a set of goals or a theme that I
described or take stock and when is the satisfaction, fun, enjoyment, contribution curve beginning to flatten and it's time to make another change? So that series of episodes around a theme played to all those things. And as I was thinking about what were the legacies of North Shore, those were two. Planful, make it happen rather than let it happen, intentional side and the do good, address urgent social concerns.Randolph: Were there particular teachers or particular experiences that helped
to make that abundantly clear to you that that preparedness, that mindfulness -- are there people that you would identify or experiences that you would identify as being really central to that to creating that?Henderson: Yes. A lot of influences. Probably the single one that most closely
addressed the concerns we've been talking about would have been Nat French, who I'd forgotten what his role was when I first got here, but he ultimately became Headmaster. And I think perhaps because I was interested in and receptive to the notion of community involvement that was Nat in spades. So either because of that we came together or we came together and he expanded my interest and awareness. But he took an interest in me and I think he took an interest in literally everybody here. And I knew that because I spent two summers as a counselor at Nat's camp in Maine. And I really came to know him awfully well and to see his way of operating. As a counselor, I was in some sense like a faculty member here. And I was astonished that Nat assembled the counselors every night and we looked at every camper every day and said, what are we going to do with Kevin? He is clearly not enjoying this, he's not getting anything out of it, this is a dud summer. How can we find a way for Kevin to excel at something or find an interest and invariably Kevin did find it. And I remember a young black kid about my age who was at the camp on scholarship, of which Nat gave more than he could afford, and he just was having an awful summer. And somebody pointed out that he really had the makings of an awfully good swimmer. And we worked on that in various ways and before the summer was over he had broken all the camp swimming records and he just was walking on air and left there a very different person. And I don't know how perceptive I was at that age in transferring that experience to North Shore, but in hindsight, it's clear to me that every one of us was under, not just Nat's, but the whole faculty's microscope. What are we doing to do to correct this need or fulfill this desire or find something in what Nat and others found in me was, I think, in part the social concern and involvement. But it was more than that, he -- I think I was five feet, a hundred 00:15:00pounds, something like that in those days. And he said one day, you could start on the football team if you really wanted to. And I just, I assumed that was hooey. But he said, you are really scrawny, what if you did push-ups? What if you did chins or something? As part of the Phys Ed program, we used to do those things as a group, Doc Anderson would mark those things on a chart and I would struggle to do one chin or one push-up. But before I finished they had to pull me off the chinning bar because Nat's encouragement and pointing in that direction. I never did start on the football team but I did play in three different sports, which is part of North Shore and something that clearly wouldn't happen -- wouldn't have happened at North Shore.Randolph: Well there's a well-placed comment from a mentor that can go a long
way --Henderson: Yeah. And I watched that thirty-five years later when my daughter was
here. She had been a freshman and a sophomore at New Trier and it just wasn't working. And she was part of a class of 1,400 and not quite five feet, not quite a hundred pounds and wasn't making the field hockey team or the swimming guard or the theater, whatever. And came here and did all those things. And I assumed that they were Nat's heirs who were watching out for Murph Henderson in ways that had been done for me.Randolph: Even today talk and it's not talk but it's belief, it's conviction
when we say every child is known. That's a goal. I think that's something we take pride in today is that belief that each of the people who walk this campus, there's someone who knows them, someone who has taken ownership for them and is invested in them. And I do think that's a hallmark in this school and I think it has always been a hallmark in this school. Those are the stories I hear and I hope it offers you some comfort to know that it's still very much a belief of this institution today.Henderson: We have just -- my wife and I have just moved into a continuing care
facility in Evanston. And we went to a gathering there and a woman that looked slightly familiar spotted me across the room and came over and said, Murph Henderson, which is my daughter's name. And it was Joyce Lopas, who is also a resident in this place. But --Randolph: Small world.
Henderson: And no reason to know me, but did and as you say everybody is known.
And she was not only curious about but informed about Murph. When I described what she's up to, Joyce could see what that was building on and what seeds had led to that. I just was -- and as far as I know, Murph never took a language class from Joyce. They just were on the campus at the same time.Randolph: Shared space and part of the community.
Henderson: Yeah.
Randolph: Joyce, when I came here Joyce was still teaching. Teaching French. I
went to years and years of faculty meetings with Joyce. In fact, Joyce, a friend of mine who's in Atlanta and Julie Hall, were the first people to institute a Holocaust education class, which I have taught now for fifteen years. So my time here has definitely intersected with Joyce. So it is a -- it is a small world. And I think it is something that links us as people who are a part of this institution, that central belief. I was amazed from really the very first faculty meeting I came to in 1990 that there weren't policy discussions. The conversations were always what's best for the student. And I had not experienced -- I was not a new teacher, I had taught for almost ten years. But I had never sat in a room of people who were being driven by simply one basic belief, what's best for the students?Henderson: Not an abstraction but what's best for Kevin and Pete and Murph.
Randolph: That's right.
Henderson: In very specific terms.
Randolph: That was a remarkable experience for me and it shaped me and continues
00:20:00to. I still try to ask that question of myself with whatever decision I have to make relative to the people I teach and the people I work with.Henderson: You asked about influences. Ramsay Duff was another influence.
Randolph: What did he teach?
Henderson: Music. Prior to Vin Alison.
Randolph: Right.
Henderson: An institution, just as Vin was.
Randolph: There have been so many great art and music instructors at this school
over the years.Henderson: Yes. But as I remember, we performed Ruddigore and other Gilbert
Sullivan works, as well as Brahms Requiem. Not just at Morning Ex or not just on the stage but in senior living spaces and others. So all of those were recurring drum beats around that serve part of live and serve. It just was --Randolph: It's been amazing for me the number of people who have mentioned
music. It makes me think that that is almost a constant at this school for so many years. Talking with the gentleman from '31 all the way up to 1962, it's as if there's a soundtrack to the school. It's as if the people would, when they got together, not arranged, not orchestrated, not planned but would just get together and just share space and then singing would sort of break out. And it's just an amazing image for me to think of sort of this kind of constant soundtrack at the institution. The people -- every person I have talked to has mentioned music in some form or fashion. Someone who inspired them, a performance they were involved in, people they got to know. Honestly, even more than athletics, music has been the thing that people have mentioned over and over again.Henderson: So that's a lifelong influence and it wasn't a new influence, it was
an interest at home as well. But it was reinforced influence and like athletics, there were a handful of gifted musicians and quarterbacks at my time, maybe three people who could sing on key but there were forty of us in my class who sang Ruddigore rather lustily or Brahms Requiem. And they weren't folks that you might have spotted as logical enthusiastic enjoying -- there weren't, I suppose there were rolled eyes at the idea of I'm going to be up there in balloon tights or balloon pants or something like that, but that was an inclusive and as impactful on the lives of people who coming to North Shore had no interest in the arts but gained that. Whether it became central in their lives at least it was an understanding and an openness that wouldn't have been there but for that.Randolph: The democratization, I've just been really impressed with the
democratization of experiences that people had because people -- there was a range of experiences. People didn't all come from wealthy families. There was a range. But the idea that we all share this, we share the field together, we share the court together, we share the classroom together. We share the stage together, we work in the toy shop together. The utter democratization of it to me is really inspiring. And the other thing that people talk about is while being democratized in an experience that everyone was encouraged to participate in, there was this attempt to reach for really high standards. We're talking about performing not just sort of marginal pieces of music but very complicated, very sophisticated pieces of music. We're talking about people, teachers in classrooms who are challenging people by reading texts that typically would be read in college. So that sort of juxtaposition to me is fascinating. Everybody 00:25:00participates and we all aspire to here. That to me, I'm not sure how many schools had the vision to do that kind of thing. It strikes me as very unique.Henderson: I'm sure it is. My sample is small but a piece of a sample was the
fact that six of our kids went productively happily to New Trier and just did fine there but each had focus or an emphasis which I think excluded other emphases. And that wasn't possible here. You could have a long super or an emphasis but you couldn't ignore the other suits. And a story I've told that kind of makes that point was Murph's brother, Charlie, at New Trier was convinced he could be a center fielder and a clarinet player. And the coach and the conductor kept saying which is it going to be, Charlie? And he said, I can do them both. And the extra inning baseball game finally blew that up. He raced into the concert just as it was about to start pulling his tux on over his uniform and got into his chair just in time. Made it. But he still had the black under his eyes and the conductor threw him out. And Murph came here and the football team was doing wonderfully and the problem was that if they won one more game they were going to a post-season series and that meant Hamlet would have to be canceled or postponed because the whole starting line had the leads in Hamlet. Two wonderful school systems, but very different experiences. So Charlie came out with a long suit in centerfield and radio, but that about did it and couldn't have happened here.Randolph: Versatility is a hallmark. To me when I think about the --
Henderson: And maybe not versatility so much as you may not exclude these out of
hand. You've at least go to have a taste of it.Randolph: Exposure.
Henderson: Sort of like --
Randolph: Versatility. The hallmarks of a liberal arts education.
Henderson: Right.
Randolph: Participation, involvement. And that builds community. And if the goal
is to have all of us know each other and be involved in each other's lives, that's very different than let's identify through a process of selection those who are the best of us. It's a very different approach.Henderson: I've watched my contemporaries and I tend to slot them in two
categories. Some are giraffes who are very tall and very narrow and they are ace ornithologists. Very good at whatever it is. And others are multi-faceted, maybe not as deep in any one but very good at a lot of things. And both can be wonderfully satisfying and contributive, but what North Shore did to me was expose me to a position where I could make that choice between giraffe and multi-purpose. And probably set the stage so that I could have discovered a field to be a giraffe in, in a way that I might have missed otherwise.Randolph: And brought to that specialization a broader vision of how that fits.
Henderson: Yes.
Randolph: I think even if you choose to specialize, you, for example, you're a
doctor but you're a different kind of doctor because of the experiences you've had.Henderson: Right.
Randolph: So what would that other animal be? I'm fascinated by the giraffe.
I've never heard anybody say it that way before. That's a really great visual image. What would the other animal be that has a lot of different kinds of talents?Henderson: I'll have to come up with that metaphor.
Randolph: I'd love to use that. You've said so many interesting things that make
me think that you should just walk over with me and teach a class because there's so many of these things that I think are relevant right here, right now. I'd love to put you in front of my students and just let them listen to the sincerity and the wisdom that's coming out of you. I mean, you seem a natural born teacher to me. I don't know if you've done that in your career, but you 00:30:00certainly seem that way to me. There's a real thoughtfulness about everything that you're saying.Henderson: Thank you. I think the thoughtfulness, or at least the curiosity or
the openness, a lot of that I can thank North Shore for, as well as parents and other folks who influenced me to be open and to explore and experiment in a way that North Shore really, really pushed.Randolph: How long were you here in terms of your academic career?
Henderson: Sixth grade through high school. So seven years.
Randolph: So you experienced both the middle school --
Henderson: I did.
Randolph: And the high school.
Henderson: Mm-hmm.
Randolph: They are different animals today. I think they have always been
different animals in terms of their developmental approach. Was that your remembrance is that they were -- they had different kinds of aims, middle school versus upper school?Henderson: I think I'd probably be making it up. But in hindsight, if I
responded to that with any sort of -- I think as I look back, Nat French was the head of the middle school maybe at that time, might have been my --Randolph: Your first contact.
Henderson: My first encounter with him. I don't know that I have an impression
of how different those were.Randolph: You mentioned earlier that Perry Dunlap Smith was still on the campus
and doing what he did so artfully and so majestically. And you had some relationship with him, what was that like? Can you describe him? What was he like in terms of the way he went about his business, the imprint that he left on the school community? I want to hear your description and then think about it relative to the way other people have described him.Henderson: Physically he made an imprint, an impact. He was a big, husky, very
erect, commanding presence. I didn't have close association with him. Two of his kids were here, Simmie and Dunny I think. Dunny probably was Perry Dunlap Junior, and Simeon. So I saw him as both a father and headmaster. A little distant and it was probably the tail end of his time here. And I don't know that I connected the experience that I was having to the planful, visionary Perry Smith role in building the school.Randolph: Were you in his famous -- it's been called by different names but
social science is the term. SS people have described it as, this class that to me, sounds a lot like sex education and so were you a student of his in that class?Henderson: I suspect I was, but there was a guy who was probably part of the
transition as Perry Smith was winding down. There was a guy named Ogden Livermore who took over that class. And it became more than sex education, but it was partly health and sex and it was partly -- he was bare on the community involvement, civic awareness side. Ogden Livermore was as bald as a cue ball. He was called Curly. And I do remember his class and what it was called I'm sure there are printable things it was called and unprintable. And I do have the sense that we heard from Mr. Smith in that class and others. But I didn't have a close relationship with him.Randolph: The other thing people described, which is interesting to me, is going
to meet and talk with him about the college application process. Which is a very different animal than it is today. They talk about he would go and he would talk 00:35:00to them for a few minutes and then he would effectively say, well this is where I think you're going to go. Now did you have that experience where you talked college with him?Henderson: I don't remember that. But I think that planfulness and
intentionality, we've talked about, had been developed largely by North Shore, partly by family, so that I saw this as more than a throw away choice. And did spend a lot of time sizing up what's Dartmouth, which is where I wound up going, and what's the University of Illinois. So I think I was pretty thoughtful about that choice and had been thoughtful as a mentor to my kids visiting a lot of campuses in their college searches.Randolph: I think the people who remember him the most are the people who didn't
agree with his choice and who diverted from where he -- a handful of schools that it sounded like he thought were appropriate. And when they were outside of that grouping, they seemed to remember those conversations very, very accurately.Henderson: Yes. I have gone back to Lunches in The Loop and things of that kind
more recently and I remember one of those speakers who were folks who were involved in exposure to college choice question. And I just was blown away by the thoughtfulness and imagination and the value of that that wasn't present sixty-five years ago. Carolyn Howard also lives in this continuing care --Randolph: OK. You have to tell her I said, she is one of my all time favorites.
I just exchanged emails with her last week. She was the Director of Admissions when I got here and I think the world of her. She is a special, special person. And she's married to a wonderful guy. Carter's a wonderful, wonderful man. So you have to please give her my very best. We're trying to figure out a time when I can come down there and we can have lunch together and catch up. It's been too long. But --Henderson: She's had a tough stretch.
Randolph: She has.
Henderson: And continues to --
Randolph: This school has been blessed with some really remarkable people and
she -- Joyce, Carolynn and so many others have just -- are so much a part of my experience here. It just makes me smile thinking about all the colleagues that I've worked with.Henderson: I'm struck through Lunch in The Loop and other exposures as an
alumnus with the fact that the place really does just keep getting better. And the more bells and whistles, the really fundamental, central improvements that are made including exposure to and consideration of things that affect a college choice. And I think today's kids must be making much wiser choices than we did as a result of the help they're getting.Randolph: It's a complicated process, that's for sure. I do think it's
heartening to realize there are things that change. And I think the physical look of the campus changes and needs to change over time. But that there are some constants here and I think it's one of the reasons these interviews are so important. And our search back through the archival information is so important, because an institution needs to take stock. It needs to think about what -- where it has come from and what its founding is about. And if in fact, this is an institution, and I believe it is, where story matters, then you're obliged to make sure you are telling your story and so that each person who comes and joins the faculty, joins as a parent, joins as a student, is immersed in that story. And so I think that's part of what I'm doing here is trying to make sure that we capture that story, that we tell it with as many different voices as we can, and that we share as broadly as we know how.Henderson: Right. I have the benefit of three or four stories. I have one that's
sixty-five years old. I had an experience as a parent when Murph was here. There was a re-igniting of my interest around her being here which led to another story being a trustee. And now kind of sit on the sidelines and admire through lunch in the loop and other casual exposures to the school. So several different 00:40:00perspectives and I suspect you're most interested in the older one.Randolph: I'm interested in all of them because I think they're all valid and
they're all important. I'm really intrigued by the fact that you and your daughter share in some respects an experience and if you two ever talk about in a multi-generational sense, if you talk about the experiences you have in common, whether it's Morning Ex or performing in musicals. Or if you see in her experience similarities to your own?Henderson: Yes. Absolutely. And again it's hard to sort through what was North
Shore, what was parents, but she wound up going to Haverford College when she left here, which I thought was just right. Small --Randolph: It's a wonderful school.
Henderson: And she took from here a love for theater, performed in every theater
performance and musical and so forth and that became a love which has been the central theme in her life. And the North Shore way of dealing with things, I remember she thought she'd like to direct some plays at Haverford and there was no program for doing that. So she went to a dean, her advisor, and said, I've got this play I'd like to put on and here's what it is and here's what would be involved. And they said, well that's fine. Where did you think you might do that? How did you think you might pay for that? And these were as valuable as the artistic side of things but she of course figured out a way to get access to an auditorium and she found some money in the student activities fund and the play was called 'When are you Going to Come Home, Red Ryder?' And it required a music box, what do you call those things? The restaurants and taverns used to have where you put a quarter --Randolph: A juke box.
Henderson: Yeah, juke box. And she found a guy who had a juke box which he would
rent to her for this performance and her scarce money was getting spread very thin. But the play was such a smash when it finally came. Jan and I went out to see it and we sat next to a guy who was more enthusiastic even than we. And he of course was the juke box owner. At the end of the play he said, no charge, no rent for that juke box, Murph. And she just figured out how to put this thing on and ultimately transferred to Northwestern's theater program and now works for the Pew Charitable Trust in Philadelphia in charge of something called The Philadelphia Theater Initiative where she makes grants to theaters.Randolph: What a great story.
Henderson: Pretty parallel to the way in which a North Shore experience
influenced profoundly the directions that she's gone ever since. So a sample of two is a tiny one but it sure convinces me that North Shore is a huge value added, something different than either of us could have found anywhere else.Randolph: And I think you and I both know that the sample size is much larger
than two. It's a fairly large and significant sample size of people who believe in this institution and the difference that it's made. It's great, I think, to celebrate ninety plus years and eventually a hundred years, but I'd love to think, and I bet you would too, that fifty more years down the road that we'll be looking at a different anniversary and looking back across and listening to these kinds of conversations and maybe what I could get you to do as I asked other people is to maybe think about one or two things that you think this institution should never change. Things that you believe are so central to its being that twenty-five and fifty years down the road when somebody listens to this, we can remind them that this is too essential, this is too important not to be taken with the current state of affairs, whatever's new and exciting. What would those one or two things be that you think just simply have to continue here for the duration?Henderson: Yes. Certainly high up on that list would be that intimate knowledge
of each kid. Interest in, awareness of, sensitivity to each student in a way 00:45:00that described Nat French and others influencing me and numerous people, influencing Murph and hearing at Lunches in The Loop the way that continues. And that's a function of size and that's a function of core philosophy and it's a function of remarkable taste North Shore has had in selecting and attracting, retaining and growing faculty members who share that central conviction. But if North Shore were to decide tomorrow that instead of being five hundred students it needed to be five thousand, I think it'd be hard to duplicate that experience. If North Shore focused on deep scholars who cared little about the students, that'd be a departure that clearly made no sense. And leaders like Nat French and Perry Smith and George Eldredge and Dick Hall and Tom Doar, not only get it but required it and use it as one of the central criteria in selecting faculty. So that would be far and away number one I think. It dictates the kind of people, kind of offerings, the climate of environment.Randolph: Small by choice is what I remember --
Henderson: It is.
Randolph: Out of the office, the really nice work that the public relations
office does here. Small by choice. Not by circumstance, by choice. Which is very different, very different.Henderson: So small is a necessary condition, but without this focus on intimate
awareness and involvement with knowledge of kids, small alone wouldn't do it. So those are two important points.Randolph: I don't think you could beat that answer. I don't think you could.
Henderson: Maybe this is sort of a sum up, the social awareness piece, the
breadth of exposure through these interim week additions to curriculum, if you will. So there's a richness that a school of 500 has no right, no expectation to be able to offer and yet North Shore has found ways to do that 65 years ago and today, as far as I can see.Randolph: Well I want to tell you what a pleasure just to sit and listen to you.
A wealth of knowledge and an abundance of wisdom. And you've worn, as you said, many different hats, which I think gives you a really unique perspective on all of this. And you articulated so well that I can understand why Nancy and Molly were so excited for me to get a chance to talk to you because they were exactly right.Henderson: Thank you, Kevin. I see a -- peripheral is my involvement in the
school in 2012 is I keep seeing illustrations of how important it was 65 years ago. We had a reunion, and this isn't the most recent one, but not long ago, reunion and so classmates came back and we were having dinner at our house and there was a knock at the door in the middle of the dinner and went to the door and here was a 1947 classmate who had been iffy about whether he'd come and we decided he wasn't going to make it. But he'd come and he was hesitantly standing on the doorway looking like he might run. And because he had been pretty odd 65 years ago, or different than the rest of us. And these classmates gathered around and embraced this guy and said, what a joy to see you. And he 00:50:00figuratively looked over his shoulder wondering who were they talking about, but he was accepted and welcomed and appreciated in a way that we probably weren't kind enough to demonstrate 65 years ago. But something in our experience since influenced by what happened then had made us open to this guy's inclusion in our group. And he left here walking on a cloud, just feeling -- yeah.Randolph: That's great.
Henderson: So these little snippets of experience keep cropping up and I'm very
conscious of how fundamentally North Shore was in all of those good things.Randolph: I hear it over and again. It was -- it's a gift that continues to keep
on giving. And wow, what better can you say of an experience than that?Henderson: Yes.
Randolph: I thank you for taking the time.
Henderson: Nice to meet you.
Randolph: It was a pleasure, truly it was.
